The book “Catcher with a Glass Arm” by Matt Christopher is about a middle school baseball player named Jody. He plays catcher for his team but struggles with his throwing to bases. Because of this, opposing teams steal on him a lot and cause him to make many errors. During one of the games early in the season, a parent from the opposing team yells out, “Steal on him! That catcher has a glass arm!” This scene gives the story its title and is the main plot behind the story. Jody’s throwing eventually gets so bad that the coach benches him and puts Rabbit Foote in at catcher. This makes Jody feel bad about himself and forces him to do something about it. He finds a good friend in Mr. Myers, who helps him with his hitting and throwing. Jody’s overall play improves greatly and, at the end of the season, it all pays off. Jody makes big plays in the last couple games and helps send the team to the playoffs. I believe that the theme of the story is that when you work hard for something, good things will happen.The main character of the story is Jody. Jody is an average sized boy who loves to play baseball. He expects the best out of himself and is upset when he doesn’t perform. When he isn’t doing his best, he works hard to make himself better so it does not happen again. He shows a great amount of dedication and pride in what he does. The setting of the story takes place in a small town during the 1970’s. The setting is hardly ever described throughout the story because it does not play a large role in the story. The author puts no effort into the setting, but the story is still very enjoyable. I would recommend this book to any reader at a middle school reading level or higher. The book is very easy to read and is very enjoyable. Any baseball fan or player would love to read this book because of the amount of gameplay involved in it. The book is very well written.
Pros: A fun easy to read book about a sport that I love. This book shows the struggle of a young catcher with a weak (glass arm) and how he overcomes that setback. This book has a great theme and does a great job of developing characters and the plot. It also gives very detailed descriptions of baseball games which i enjoyed. Cons: Didn't really have too many complaints about this book one that I was kinda disappointed with was the lack of detail i put into the setting.Another part that I didn't like was the fact that they came away from the storyline talking about midnight the cat and while Jody was put on the bench.Recommendations: I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys baseball or short fun books. Also anyone that is generally interested in sports at all, they would all enjoy it.
